Copyrights

What is a Copyright?

A Copyright protects an “original works of authorship,” such as a book, script, painting, photograph, song, video, computer software, fabric and furniture designs or architecture from being copied without permission. Copyright protection naturally exists from the moment a “work” is created, but in the United States, a copyright may be registered with the United States Copyright Office, a division of the United States Library of Congress, once the work is fixed in a “tangible medium of expression.”

Copyright protection is provided by the laws of the United States, Title 17 of the United States Code. While registration is not required for protection, there are some significant advantages to registering your work with the United States Copyright Office. These advantages include public and legal notice of your ownership in the work. Upon registration, your work will be published in Copyright Office’s catalog, a searchable database of registered copyrighted material. This provides the public with constructive notice that you own the work. Registration also provides prima facie (true on its face) evidence that the copyright is valid if the work is registered within five years of being made available to the public.

Moreover, without a timely registration, as a copyright holder you are limited only to actual damages in the case of infringement, which could be nominal and difficult to prove at best. With a registration however, you are entitled to statutory damages and attorneys’ fees. Without having to prove actual damages, you may be eligible to recover attorneys’ fees and statutory damages of up to $150,000.00 per infringement. However, to claim these damages, the registration must be made within three months of the work’s publication (made publically available) or before the infringement occurs. Thus, time is of the essence. Perhaps the most advantageous reason to register your work is that without a registration, you cannot bring a lawsuit for copyright infringement.

The Copyright Application process is a fairly simple, inexpensive process. SHERMAN IP attorneys are available to assist you in filing your applications should you believe that counsel is necessary or an infringement issue is a priority. A copyright is infringed upon when an unauthorized person copies, licenses, distributes or adapts the protected work without permission.